Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, who's also a retired officer in the United States Army, was appalled by how President Joe Biden utilized two Marine Corps officers in Thursday's primetime address from Philadelphia.
From Mastriano's perspective, it's one thing to have Marines on-site for a national speech, but it's another to feature military personnel in a speech promoting a "dark, scary agenda."
The tone of Biden's address was "very troubling," Mastriano told Newsmax Friday afternoon while appearing on "The Chris Salcedo Show."
"Not only did Joe Biden use the Marines as a backdrop, but also to use a national icon, a national treasure right here in Pennsylvania in Independence Hall, where the light of liberty was lit in 1776 ... it's one of many unprecedented things coming out of this administration," said Mastriano.
In the last month alone, Mastriano has voiced concern over a number of Biden actions related to the sagging U.S. economy, high crime rates in major cities, and the ongoing chaos at the United States-Mexico border.
But two other things stand out for Mastriano, currently a state senator in Pennsylvania:
Biden having the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) execute a home raid on former President Donald Trump, who could easily be Biden's opponent in the 2024 presidential election.
And then "demonizing half the United States population" in last night's nationally televised address.
"That's very chilling. That speech was divisive and very inappropriate," says Mastriano, an America First candidate in the Pennsylvania governor's race.
Biden's speech also failed from an optics standpoint, said Mastriano, since the most memorable part will likely be the ominous imagery in the background.
The messaging also wasn't appropriate for a president, said Mastriano, prompting him to rhetorically wonder to Newsmax, "How is anybody better off under the Democrats?"
Mastriano said that politicians such as President Biden and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — Mastriano's general-election opponent in the gubernatorial race — were "militant" about shutting people and businesses down in 2020 and parts of 2021, due to COVID-19; and after that, they favored policies which led to high inflation in America.
Come November, "we're going to mop the floor with them on that argument," said Mastriano.
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